With a dozen players remaining in the World Poker Tour Rolling Thunder Main Event Brock Wilson sits comfortably in the top half of the counts. To the casual observer, nothing jumps out about Wilson that’s particularly intimidating – he’s soft spoken with a lanky build, a short, tidy haircut and glasses.
But put him in at the poker table and he turns into a beast. He has $7 million in tournament earnings on his Hendon profile and has taken at least $2 million of it from the PokerGO studio. But a WPT title has evaded him to this point and it could just be a matter of time for Wilson.
Title hunting
“Honestly, a WPT title means more to me than a bracelet,” Wilson said. “There’s not that many of them, they have really good structures, reasonable buy-ins and significant first place prizes.”
“You know, there is no cheap WPT title,” he added. “I got third in Tampa two years ago and I regret some decisions that led to me getting third. A WPT title definitely means something to me.”
Wilson's support system
Wilson has a few things going for him this week – his girlfriend and fellow pro Cherish Andrews is playing a bounty event one table away and his friend, and study partner, Stephen Song were seated at the same table.
Wilson took a significant pot from Song just minutes before the interview. “He helps me get into the minds of others and different player types,” Wilson said.
“Because sometimes I have trouble relating and he’s a very emotionally intelligent guy. He’s always helpful in saying that a certain type of player is going to look at a situation like this and you should approach it like that.”
Wilson’s tournament results look a like shotgun blast at the map – he has results scattered everywhere and at all different buy-in levels. “My experience can be an advantage,” he said. “I play these year-round and I really focus on how to play different player types from different regions.”
“I’ve got a pretty good feel for all these players; I’ve played with a lot of them and I think that they’re all pretty good,” said Wilson. “I think the field is a little bit tougher than average, but I’m feeling confident as I focus on tendencies. I’m trying to take advantage of what I can and hold my own against good players.”
Finding balance in an off balance existence
Andrews has kept a tab on watching Wilson play since she was eliminated on Day 2. “It definitely helps that we both understand the emotional swings and that is a massive advantage for me,” Wilson said.
“We both understand that there’s times you just don’t want to play or talk about it,” he added. “In terms of balance, it’s an ever-evolving process and sometimes I lose specifically lose tracks of hobbies outside poker and she helps with that. We try to find some time between tournament stops to reset.“
All photos courtesy of WPT - Drew Amato.
